Seder | Peaches Prattlings

{April 23, 2024} Second Seder and Homeward Bound

First night with my family was fabulous, as always. Second night is always with PSM’s family, a fun time that!

It’s Tuesday, so it’s still a work day, that means, more cooking, just to fill in some of the gaps from what we ate last night at the first seder. We made two more kugels, another matzoh brittle, more gefilte fish, and more broccoli pancakes, oh yeah, more hard boiled eggs.

In between cooking, there was work to be done, for my job that is! I actually got a lot done, had a few calls, GES and dad went to the grocery store for some supplies, I did go out and treat myself to a chai at Starbucks, ended up talking to a nice guy about bikes, he commented on my Sturgis sweatshirt, how could I not talk about how much we love to ride?!

About 5p, I started to pack up my stuff and about 530p, I hugged and kissed everyone goodbye and headed to PSM’s family’s for seder. There were a lot more people at the second night seder, GES was having about 20, we had 11 last night, sound about right!

I walked in with my goodies, the fabulous veggie matzoh ball soup for me and the peach matzoh kugel for all. Let’s just say, I know it was good, but…there was absolutely nothing left for me to take back to PA and PSM! Happily disappointed!

We sat down about 630pm, I ended up at the kids side of the table. Kids being the youngest was about 16 or 17 and the oldest in their 20s, these are bigger kids. They still do the Four Questions, well, they’re still the youngest! Of course, I was also seated across from some of the older trouble makers, myself included, not complaining, there was a lot of laughter and love!

As all families, they have their own traditions, we sing Take Me Out to the Seder, sung to…you guessed it, Take Me Out to the Ball Game! They use different Haggadah’s, as most families do, but like most families, everyone takes a turn reading, participating in the service and the telling of our story.

I stayed until the seder was over and we started clearing the table, and some folks were heading out, it was about 930p and I had a very long drive home! Not looking forward to that…I got on the road, had the top down for part of it, of course! I decided to go through Connecticut, how much traffic could there be at 12-1am?! Well…not hours of traffic, but there was traffic! Seriously? I cannot stand driving through that state! I may have already said it, I enjoy the state, just not driving through it! ugh!

After about 3 hours, I probably stopped every hour, to get gas, walk around, keep myself awake and ready to go. It was a very, very, very long drive. I find that during the day, I can drive for what seems like forever! I remember driving from St Louis to Denver, CO, it’s about a 12 hour drive, I did it in one fell swoop, isn’t that a great expression! But once the sun goes down, I’m not good for the full drive without stopping.

I made it home safely, finished a podcast, started a new one, that kept me going for hours, I wasn’t sure when it was going to end, but good for my drive! I made it home about 330am and I was done! I emailed dad and my sister to let them know I was home, went into the house and was greeted with running, snuggles, and kisses from the fur babies, someone had fallen asleep and left them out.

I proceeded to love on them, get them in the crate, and it was all I could do to walk upstairs, put on my jammies, and fall into bed, the alarm was still coming at 6a, really?

All in all, a good trip, too short, but a good one. Family, friends, food, and fun, what more could you want? Notin’ I tell ya! Nothin’! G’Night!

{March 27, 2021} Chag Sameach [Happy Holiday]

Tonight is the first night of Passover or Pesach in Hebrew. The story of Passover is the Jews exodus out of Egypt in the time of Pharoh. There are great stories associated with Passover, the exodus, Moses, Pharoh [they weren’t all bad!] and I’m sure we’ve talked about them in the past, check this one out A zissen pesach [I actually titled this post A zissen pesach, imagine my surprise when I found my past post A zissen pesach! Here’s another A Happy Passover. The links I added can give you lots of insight! into the holiday, but that’s not what I want to talk about tonight.

Passover is actually one of my favorite holidays, in case you didn’t know! I’ve loved it since I was a kid, mostly because it’s the time my family gets together and spends time with each other, shares stories, food, friendship, camaraderie, and love. What more could you want?! We started at my grandmother’s house in Brooklyn, NY, then moved it to Staten Island, NY, where I grew up, then my sister’s house in Boston, MA. When I met PSM, we did the divide and conquer, First Night Seder with my family, second night seder with his family, win-win!

Even though our families and some of the traditions are different, the basics are the same. Similar seder meal, same prayers, maybe not said or sung the same way, but the same, and rules, rules for what we eat and how we eat it, some of the foods are the same because they are part of the story and seder, the haggadahs, the prayer books, might not be the same, but you could almost interchange them. But the one thing that is the same, the laughter that happens, no matter what.

Some great things came up today. First…my dad texted and asked where we should stop for pizza before the seder. This made my sister and I laugh. The tradition was…when we had seder at my grandmother’s house, my mom would spend the night before in Brooklyn with my grandmother prepping and cooking for the seder. The afternoon of Passover, my dad, sister, and I would drive into Brooklyn to my grandmother’s house, but first, we would stop for a slice of pizza. Even when we moved Passover to Staten Island, then Boston, we still had pizza as the ‘last meal’. I say last meal because it’s the last time we would have leavened bread, bread that rises, is made with wheat. Starting with the seder, we eat unleavened bread or matzoh.

I texted with a few Jewish friends today and one of my friends, one of my oldest friends from high school, CGS told me that she had been thinking about seders at my grandmother’s house, which made me smile, especially when she told me they were her first seders. As soon as she and I became friends, she was instantly a part of my family, and I became part of hers. She remembers how much fun and silly it was at my grandmothers and the best…she said she was thinking about my dad and the reclining chair!

The tradition stems from wealthy people in olden times reclining in their chairs when they ate meals. Not exactly the most comfortable thing today, but…it’s a tradition. Now…some people would use a pillow to recline, the thing that CGS reminded me of was the chair at the head of the table at my grandmother’s, it was actually broken and when it came time to talk about reclining, my dad would take the back off the chair and literally recline! That really was one of my favorites, and what a memory to share with friends! Thanks for that.

There were other traditions that we shared, and I could go on, but this post would go on for days. Tonight begins the Feast of Passover and I wish you a Zissen Pesach.

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